Review of Alien (1979) by Eric D — 11 Dec 2013

I think if I'd seen this when it came out I would have liked it even more, but then again, I wasn't born yet. This is just the template for modern sci-fi/suspense/horror of the last 30+ yrs. It's also the movie that launched Sigourney Weaver's career, with a fantastic, smart, gritty performance as Ripley.

Add in a stellar support cast: Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. Then, somehow make it about a woman being a survivor, and boom; franchise (albeit, with diminishing returns).

Ridley Scott directs a tense film here, and it helps that the first nearly 45 minutes is rather slow and used to set up the scene and the relationships between everyone before all hell breaks loose. A classic, anyone who likes any sci-fi of the last 3 decades, a lot of it will have been made by people who were influenced by this in one way or another.